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c " v GUIDE . 

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Northern PaaficRailroad 

KteFICE, 120 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



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THE LANDS 

OF THE 

The Northern Pacific Railroad 

IN MINNESOTA. 



The Northern Pacific Railroad Company, by act of 
Congress, is entitled to 3,276,000 acres of land in the State 
of Minnesota. These lands are situated along the line of 
railroad already constructed across the State from a point on 
the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad near Lake Supe- 
rior to Dakota, a distance of two hundred and twenty-eight 
miles. A million acres have been surveyed, and are ready for 
sale. The lands owned by the company are the odd-num- 
bered sections in each township within the limits of the grant ; 
while the even-numbered sections are held by the government, 
and are open to settlement under the homestead and pre- 
emption laws. 

The lands have been classified into three divisions, accord- 
ing to their situation, forest-growth, and characteristics of the 
soil. 

THE FIRST DIVISION 

Embraces the territory between Lake Superior and the Mis- 
sissippi River. It is mainly a forest region, — a portion of the 
great pinery of Minnesota, embracing about twenty-one thou- 
sand square miles, — a section as large as the States of New 
Hampshire and Vermont together, located west and north-west 
of Lake Superior. The entire country around the head 



2 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

waters of the Mississippi is covered with a forest-growth. 
The flora embraces several varieties of pine, also cedar, fir, 
tamarack, balsam, ash, aspen, elm, maple, birch, oak, and 
other woods, and is Identical with the flora of New York, 
Pennsylvania, the Bfew-Englahd States, and Canada. There 
are numerous streams, lakes, and ponds, through which the 
lumber is run into the Mississippi, floated to Minneapolis, and 
there manufactured. Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Northern 
Missouri receive a huge portion of the lumber required for 
the building of houses or for fencing from this section of the 
north-west. 

The Northern Pacific Railroad runs along the southern 
border of the pine region, and crosses the Mississippi Rt Brain- 
erd, about one hundred and fifty miles above Minneapolis. 
Lumber to the amount of two hundred million feet is floated 
down the river every year from the section of country traversed 
by the railroad, or from the region north of it. Hitherto, nearly 
all of this great amount has been manufactured at Minneapolis ; 
but steam-mills are erecting atBrainerd, and the prairie region 
of the Red-river Valley, Western Minnesota, and Dakota, will 
hereafter be supplied with lumber manufactuied at that point. 
There are excellent facilities for the erection of steam-mills at 
Brainerd, upon the shore of a small lake, into which the logs 
may be driven from the river, and securely boomed. 

Not only at Brainerd, but at other points along the line, 
superior advantages are offered for the manufacture of lumber 
into doors, sashes, blinds, finishing-material, agricultural im- 
plements, farm-wagons, carriages, and furniture. 

In tins forest region there are many meadows and marshes 
covered with luxuriant native grasses, where thousands of tons 
of hay may be had for the cutting. From these natural 
meadows the lumbermen's teams are supplied with hay during 
the winter. " The blue-joint, foul-meadow, and red-top, and 
ofber varieties of grass, are indigenous, and yield not unfre- 
quentlv three Ions per acre. As the timber disappears before 
the lumberman's axe, the country will be dryer; and there 
are large tracts which ultimately will be brought under culti- 
vation, as has been the case in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and 
Wisconsin. Between the lakes are low ridges and belts of 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 3 

land where the soil is excellent, and where wheat, rye, barley, 
and potatoes will yield as large returns as in other sections of 
the State. English grasses grow luxuriantly. In the vicinity 
of the Mississippi, the soil is sandy, but, from the fact that it 
contains a large percentage of lime, produces good crops. 

Settlers intending to take up farms will undoubtedly find 
the prairies farther west more inviting than the lands of this 
section ; but those engaged in lumbering, or in the manufac- 
ture of farming-implements, wagons, carriages, or furniture, 
will find excellent facilities for business along the line of 
the Northern Pacific Railroad, between Lake Superior and 
the Mississippi River. 

THE SECOND DIVISION 

Embraces the lands between the Mississippi River and the 
Red-river Valley, — a distance of about a hundred and ten 
miles. It is more diversified than the region east of the 
Mississippi. There are prairies, low hills, ridges, swales, and 
meadows, watered by numerous lakes, ponds, and clear-run- 
ning streams. There are wide belts of forest, isolated groves 
and parks, presenting, especially in the western portion, 
beautiful and charming landscapes. In a region so extensive 
and diversified, different varieties of soil are found. 

Beginning at the Mississippi, and moving west, we see that 
the land in the vicinity of the river, and for a distance of 
twenty miles along the northern bank of the Crow Wing 
River, is a sandy loam ; the growth consisting of maple, elm, 
oak, and pine. Crossing the Crow Wing, the surface becomes 
undulating ; and, while the forest is not dense, there is a large 
amount of timber. 

Ottertail County occupies the centre of this second division. 
Ottertail City situated about fifteen miles south of the line of 
the railroad, is the county-seat, and was settled many years ago 
by the North-western Fur Company : so that the capabilities 
of the soil are well known. It is a sandy loam, warm, quick, 
and easy of cultivation. Corn ripens in August. Oats, 
potatoes, and rye give large returns ; and, though the yield 
of wheat in this county is below the average in the State, 
it is higher than the average in Ohio or Iowa. 



4 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

In the Report of the Commissioner of Statistics in Minne- 
BOta for 1869, the yield of wheat in Ottertail County is given 
;ti 1 2.58 bushels per acre ; while the yield in Ohio is but 11.31, 
and in Iowa 9.06, 

Thai this region will compare favorably with other sections 
of the country in the production of wheat, oats, barley, buck- 
wheat, and potatoes, will be seen from the following statement, 
takm from the Report of the Agricultural Bureau at Wash- 
ington for Ohio and Iowa, and from the Commissioner of 
Statistics in Minnesota for Ottertail County: — 

Wheat. Oats. Corn. Barley. Buckwheat. Potatoes. 

Ottertail 12.53 26.65 12.73 22.15 11.21 88.07 

Ohio 11.31 23.8G 34.37 20.38 10.97 72.12 

Iowa 9.75 23.04 37.12 23.07 9.49 81.01 

With the exception of corn, Ottertail County shows a yield 
superior, in most respects, to those two great agricultural 
States of the West. 

In Becker County, the streams in the eastern section send 
their waters to the Gulf of Mexico; while those that rise in 
the western portion flow into Hudson's Bay. This county 
also abounds in lakes and running streams ; and it has appro- 
priately been called the "park region " of the North-west, on 
account of the many picturesque parks and groves, which, 
with the intervening lawns and undulating prairies, waving 
in summer with luxuriant grasses, lend a charm and beauty 
to the landscape hardly to be surpassed on the continent. 

The soil is deeper, darker, and richer than that of Otter- 
tail. The sandy element gives place to clay and lime, which, 
with the great amount of organic matter, make it exceedingly 
fertile. 

The country west of Detroit Lake was a solitude in 1869, but 
is now quite* thickly settled. Most of the desirable sections 
of government land near the line of the railroad have already 
been taken as homesteads. The region is so attractive, that 
many settlers secured homes before the lands were surveyed, 
or offered for sale. 

In addition to the richness of the soil, the abundance of 
pure water, and the attractive features of the landscape, is 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 5 

the large area covered with timber, — not in unbroken forests, 
but standing in groves, easy of access. Here the settler may 
commence at once to turn the sod, enclose his field, and 
obtain from a neighboring grove his fencing-material and 
wood for his fire. 

The attractions of this region have been highly praised by 
visitors. Capt. Pope of the United-States Topographical 
Engineers, in his report to government, thus speaks of the 
country in the vicinity of Ottertail Lake, — 

" The whole region of country for fifty miles in all directions around this 
lake is among the most beautiful and fertile in the world. The fine scenery 
of lakes, and open groves of oak-timber, of winding streams connecting 
them, and beautifully-rolling country on all sides, renders this portion of 
Minnesota the garden-spot of the North-west. It is impossible, in a report 
of this character, to describe the feelings of admiration and astonishment 
with which we first beheld the charming country in the vicinity of this lake; 
and, were I to giv§ expression to my own feelings and opinions in reference 
to it, I fear they would be considered the ravings of a visionary or an 
enthusiast." 

Mr. Bayard Taylor, in a letter to the New-York Tribune, 
written July, 1871, thus describes his ride through this lake- 
region of the North-west, — 

" Away we went over the long undulations of soil, past the glimmer of 
virgin lakes, through the unshorn gardens of the wilderness. Prairie-grass 
and western winds, blue sky and bluer waters, vast horizons and flying 
clouds, and wanton interchange of belted light and shadow, — they all filled 
us, if not with a new delight, yet with one which never grows stale from 
experience. The region resembles Southern Nebraska, which it fully equals 
in richness, and boasts the additional charm of its numberless little lakes, 
bright lovely tarns, generally with a timbered bluff on the northern side. 
All the most attractive situations are being rapidly claimed by settlers. 

" Looking from the rise of the grassy waves far and wide over the land, 
we constantly saw the white speck of a tent or a hasty board-cabin on the 
timbered knolls or beside the half-hidden lakes. Like Kansas and Nebraska, 
ten years of settlement will give to North-western Minnesota the aspect of 
an old country." 

The attractive features of Becker County are given in a 
letter to the New- York Standard, by an editorial excur- 
sionist who visited the Red-river Valley in compan}^ with 
Mr. Taylor. The writer says, — 



6 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

"No description wo can give will do justice to, or convey any adequate 
idea of the beauty, the pa*k-lik6 loveliness, of ihe scenery between the Buf- 
ulo River and Pelican Luke, — not that these points indicate any other limits 

than those of our journey : on the contrary, we are told that the same 

character pertains to the whole central section of North-western Minnesota, 
from the Mississippi River to the Lake of the Woods. We stopped to 
enjoy the scene, — a thousand hills gently sloping to valleys smooth and fair 
as an English lawn, or t,, clear, calm lakes blue as the sky above ; wide 
ranges oi woodland; solid masses of green in the distance, breaking nearby 
into groves and groups of trees; splendid single oaks and elms Standing out 
as sentinels in advance of the host; a rich, verdant vesture, deeper and 
brighter in color than our highest Eastern culture can produce, covering every 
opening ; water everywhere Btretching away like a placid river for miles and 
miles, or interrupted by projecting headlands and clusters of islets wooded 
from shore to crest; and over all the infinite arch of Celestial azure of whose 
pure splendor the heart of man cannot elsewhere conceive. These be some 
hints of the element? that compose these loveliest of landscapes, — not grand 
nor romantic, but of that satisfying, peaceful beauty wherewith the best of 
our race delight to surround their homes. . . . 

" A hundred lakes wind in and out among the hills, forming bold, thick- 
timbered headlands, — the finest sites imaginable for Ihe farm-houses of a 
people intelligent and cultured to appreciate the wondrous iavors Nature has 
here bestowed. 

" A soil whose luxuriant products prove the richest fertility; an ample 
provision of oak and other timber growing in charming groves; lakes 
and streams affording frequent water-powers in every locality, — if Ceres 
herself should seek a home for prosperous agriculture, her choice might well 
be here." 

Another editorial writer in the Springfield (Mass.) Re- 
publican says, — 

" The lakes are numberless, and of all sizes, and have the most beautiful 
surroundings of oak-timbered rolling prairies that, the eve ever rested upon. 
. . . The whole section of country hereabout is extremely fertile, has a 
wonderfully uniform climate for such a high latitude, is, for a prairie country, 
quite well wooded; and good water is easily obtained from springs and wells, 
and from the lakes by those who choose to use lake-water." 



THE THIRD DIVISION 

Comprises the land in the Red-river Valley, which has a 
width on the Minnesota side of from twenty to thirty miles, 
and on the Dakota side of from thirty to forty. The soil is 
wholly alluvial, — a dark loam abounding in organic matter, 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 7 

twelve to twenty-five inches in depth, resting on a subsoil 
of gray marl, rich in lime and other elements that enter into 
the composition of grains and grasses. 

Here the settler will find a field where great farms can be 
managed with corresponding profit ; where furrows, unbroken 
by hillocks, hollows, ridges, or other obstructions, may be 
turned ten and even twenty miles between the streams 
tributary to the Red River, or between the river and the 
eastern boundary of the valley. To the eye, the valley seems 
to be perfectly level ; but the descent towards the river is at 
the rate of ten feet to the mile, — sufficient for drainage. 
There are no lakes or ponds in the valley ; but it is watered 
by the Buffalo River and its branches, the Wild Rice and 
other streams on the Minnesota side, and by the Sheyenne, 
Maple, Elm, and others on the Dakota side ; while excellent 
water may be had by sinking wells fifteen to twenty-five feet 
below the surface. The ground is covered in summer with 
a heavy growth of grass, furnishing a vast area of fine pas- 
turage, and where hay may be cut for winter use. The 
prairie-grass is very nutritious ; and stock turned to pasture 
in April is fit for the market in midsummer. 

The valley of the Red River is about three hundred and 
fifty miles long, and contains an area of about twenty thou- 
sand square miles of arable land, — a territory nearly as 
large as the States of Vermont and New Hampshire com- 
bined, or half as large as the State of Ohio. The Northern 
Pacific Railroad crosses it from east to west, about sixty miles 
from the southern boundary. Fort Abercrornbie is situated 
on the Red River, about forty, miles south of the line of the 
road. The farms that have been under cultivation at that 
point for several years produce, upon an average, thirty 
bushels of wheat to the acre. Thirty-five and even forty- 
five bushels have been harvested under favorable circum- 
stances. Garden vegetables and all the cereals ripen in per- 
fection at the Fort, and with a yield higher by several per 
cent than the average throughout the State. 

The northern portion of the valley lies in the Province 
of Manitoba in British America. The characteristics of the 
soil of that region are set forth in a pamphlet prepared by the 



8 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

clnk of the Province, which is approved by a joint committee 
of both houses of the Manitoba parliament, and from which 
the following extract is taken: — 

'• Tin- soil is an alluvial, black, argillaceous mould, rich in organic depos- 
its, and resting, for a depth of two to four feet, on :i tenacious day subsoil. 
The measures of beat are ample for the production and development of 

Indian corn. Wheal is the leading staple. Some fields have been known 

to produce twenty successive crops of wheat without fallow or manure, the 
yield frequently being fifty to sixty bushels to the acre. Forty budiels is 
Bet down as an average crop." 

Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, is two hundred and 
thirty miles farther uorth than the line of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, li is tin; concurrent testimony of all who have 
visited the Red-river Valley, that for the production of 
wheat, oals, barley, buckwheat, rye, potatoes, and garden 
vegetables, it is superior to any other equal area on the 
continent. 

The editor of the Pittsburg Commercial, who visited the 
Red-river Valley in 1871, gives the following statement in 
regard to its resources : — 

" There are about twenty thousand square nules of land unsurpassed for 
fertility. There i-; no pereeptible difference in the quality of the soil, on 
cither Bide of the river (Minnesota and Dakota) ; all of it beimx a rich blaek 
loam, dry, mellow, ami easily cultivated. J think, that, on the banks of the 
river, it is a little richer than the rest; but all has rare fertility. Accord- 
ing to the present mode of cultivation, no erop is produeed or expected until 
the second year after breaking the prairie. A gentleman at Abercrombie 
i- Baid to have produced forty-five bushels of wheat to the acre in his first 
year of sowing. Garden vegetables, including cucumbers, radishes, peas, 
beans, onions, and even watermelons, grow well in the gardens I saw on the 
way. The wild rose grows in the woodlands ; and the garden of Bishop 
Tache, in St. Boniface, bloomed with beautiful Bowers. Farming opera- 
tions commence about the 10th of April, at Abercrombie, and from the 15th 
to the 20th at Winnipeg." 

The fertility of the Red-river Valley is thus described by 
the editor of the Chicago Advance, in a letter written from 
Manitoba : — 

" The same remarkable fertility that I mentioned last week as the great 
characteristic of the Red-river Valley appears here in data that cannot be 
disputed. Gov. Archibald told us of fields that had been cropped with 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 9 

wheat for forty successive years, and which still yield from thirty to forty 
bushels to the acre. We saw those which were sown on the 15th of May, 
and reaped on the 1st of August. Oats, barley, and potatoes yield corre- 
sponding crops. The secret of this remarkable summer growth, aside from 
the fertility of the soil, lies in the length and warmth of the summer days. 
Though the nights were cool, during the week we were there, the mercury 
went up at mid-day, in the shade, to a hundred degrees. And not only are 
the days warm ; but here on the fiftieth parallel they are several hours 
longer than with us. With such long days and warm days, growing crops 
ought to do good work. Essentially the same conditions exist for fifteen 
hundred miles farther up the great Saskatchawan Valley, which, if it had 
the population to till it, could raise wheat enough to feed the world." 

WHEAT. 

That Minnesota has a climate and soil peculiarly adapted 
to the production of wheat will be seen from the following 
statement : — 

Years. Bushels produced. Average per acre. 

1859 2,374,415 19 

1860 5,101,432 22.05 

1865 9,475,000 22.7 

1866 7,921,442 14.46 

1867 10,014,828 14.64 . 

1868 15,381,022 17.9 

1869 17.660,467 17.55 

The valley of the Red River contains not far from thirteen 
million acres of the best wheat-lands on the continent, — an 
area large enough and sufficiently fertile to produce more 
wheat than is now raised in the United States ; and this 
vast acreage, by the construction of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, and the Pembina Branch of the St. Paul and Pacific, 
is now open to the agriculturist. Should the development 
of this fertile section be as rapid as the growth of the State 
has been between 1859 and 1869, the shipments of grain from 
Duluth at the close of the present decade probably will not 
be less than fifty million bushels per annum. 

CORN. 

Although Minnesota is not classed as a corn-growing State, 
the following statement will be conclusive evidence that the 



10 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

summers are long enough for the cultivation of that 
grain : — 

Year. Area. —Acres. Bushels. Average. 

1859 117,500 3.073,749 20.17 

18G0 80,782 8,148,577 35.07 

1806 88,183 8,058,647 23.32 

1867 100,048 3,816,010 31.95 

1808 129,909 4,849,930 37.33 

18G9 117,587 4,519,120 80.62 

1870 204,129 7,552,773 37.00 



PRODUCTIVENESS OF THE SOIL. 

Although the productiveness of Ottcrtail County, as has 
been seen, is greater than the average in Ohio and Iowa, yet 
the average for the State of Minnesota is much greater than 
that of Ottertail County. The following table exhibits, in 
bushels, the yield per acre of four of the principal crops for 
a series of years : — 



Year. 


Wheat. 


Oats. 


Corn. 


Potatoes. 


1859 


19 


33.9 


20.66 


115 


1800 


22.05 


42.39 


35.67 


138 


1805 


22.70 


43.25 


30.80 


139.24 


1800 


14.46 


23.37 


23.32 


113.00 


1807 


14.04 


34.51 


31.19 


101.30 


1808 


17.91 


30.09 


37.30 


105.90 


1809 


17.55 


39.74 


30.02 


74.70 



At the American Institute Fair held in New York in 1871, 
at which nearly all of the Western States were represented, 
the products of Minnesota took the highest premium. 

Every kind of grain and garden vegetable raised in New 
England, New York, Pennsylvania, Northern Indiana, Michi- 
gan, Northern Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, may be raised 
upon the lands of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT. 

The advance of agriculture in Minnesota will be seen from 
the following statement : — 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 11 

Under cultivation in Acres. 

1850 1,900 

1S54 15,000 

18G0 556,250 

18GG 895,412 

18G7 1,092,593 

18G8 1,387,470 

1SG9 1,610,456 

1870 1,863,316 

The area under cultivation at the present time, 1872, is 
probably two million three hundred thousand acres. 

FRUIT. 

The country has not been settled long enough along the 
line of the road to show its capabilities for the production of 
fruit ; but at the Minneapolis Fair, held on Sept. 13, 1871, 
there were seventy varieties of apples on exhibition, of large 
size and excellent flavors, with Concord, Delaware, and 
Isabella grapes ripened to perfection in the open air. The 
wild grape is found along the Red River and its tributaries, 
from which we may believe that the hardy varieties may 
be successfully cultivated. Strawberries grow luxuriantly 
throughout the State, especially in the Red-river Valley. 

Settlers should plant apple-seeds as soon as possible after 
getting upon their lands, and raise trees from the seed. 
Trees brought from more southern latitudes do not thrive 
well ; but seedlings are thrifty and hardy, and excellent vari- 
eties may be obtained by careful selection. 

Dwarf pears are successfully raised in the southern coun- 
ties of the State, and with proper cultivation may be grown 
in the Red-river Valley. 

TIMBER AND FUEL. 

As has been already seen, the first and second divisions are 
well supplied with timber. The forest region reaches nearly 
to the Red-river Valley. There are two saw-mills already in 
operation at Brainerd, on the Mississippi, manufacturing fifty 
thousand feet of lumber per day ; also a planing-mill and a 
sash-factory. Pine lumber may be had at stations along the 



V2 .MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

lino of the road at about Minneapolis prices, — from sixteen 
dollars to eighteen dollars per thousand feet for common, 
twenty dollars for second-class, twenty-five dollars for firat- 
class; shinnies four dollars and a half per thousand. 

There is sufficient wood along the Bed River and its tribu- 
taries to supply settlers with fuel lor the present; and there 
arc exhaustless deposits of coal in Dakota, near the line of 
the railroad, and on the Missouri River, about two hundred 
miles west of Minnesota. 

Upon the completion of the road to the Missouri River 
during the autumn of this present year, 1872, the coal of that 
region can be delivered at Moorhead and other stations, at a 
price not exceeding five dollars to six dollars per ton. An- 
thracite coal from Pennsylvania, taken to Duluth as ballast 
by vessels engaged in the grain-trade, can be put down at 
Moorhead at a cost not exceeding ten dollars or twelve dollars 
per ton, and the bituminous coal of Ohio and Indiana at a 
less price ; but, with a coal-field in Dakota many times larger 
than that of New York and Pennsylvania, there will always 
be an abundance of cheap fuel in the Red-river Valley. 

MARKETS. 

One of the most important things to be considered by those 
who are seeking homes is cheap transportation for their farm- 
products. Grain can be carried at a much lower rate by 
water than by rail ; and fertile lands situated near lake-ports 
are therefore more valuable than those of equal fertility lo- 
cated farther away from water-carriage. Lands in Northern 
Illinois, Southern Wisconsin, and Eastern Iowa, along the lines 
of railways, have become very valuable, because the farmers 
are so near to Chicago and Milwaukee, from whence their 
grain is shipped by steamers and sailing-vessels to the East. 
Lands, which, ten } 7 ears ago, were worth from three dollars to 
ten dollars per acre, are now worth from fifteen dollars to fifty 
dollars. That there will be a corresponding increase in the 
value of the lands along the line of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad in Minnesota must be plain to every one who exam- 
ines the subject; for grain is shipped just as cheaply from 



NOETHEEN PACIFIC EAILEOAD. 13 

Duluth to Buffalo, Oswego, and Ogdensburg, and other Eastern 
lake-ports, as from Chicago or Milwaukee. The Boston colo- 
nists who are rearing their homes on the shores of the 
beautiful Detroit Lake in Minnesota can ship their grain to 
market at as low rates as the farmers who live at Dubuque, a 
hundred and eighty-eight miles from Chicago. The colonists 
who have settled in the Red-river Valley are receiving as much 
per bushel for their wheat as the farmers around Davenport, 
the largest city of Iowa, or in the vicinity of Springfield in 
Central Illinois. With cheap transportation, with a soil as 
fertile as the most favored sections of the Western States, 
with towns and cities rising as they have risen over Wiscon- 
sin and Iowa, there must be, as there has been in those States, 
a corresponding increase in the value of land ; and the settler 
who secures a farm of a hundred and sixty acres now may be 
sure of an advance of several hundred per cent for his invest- 
ment a few years hence. 

CLIMATE. 

The climate of Central Minnesota in winter is very much 
like that of Maine, New Hampshire, Northern New York, 
Canada, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with this exception, — 
that there is less moisture in the atmosphere. The mercury 
frequently goes below zero in Minnesota, as it does in New 
England and New York ; but the snow-fall is usually less 
than in the eastern and northern portions of the Middle 
States. The mean winter temperature of the State is 16°. 1, 
an average about -1° lower than in New Hampshire, Ver- 
mont, and Northern New York. 

The average summer temperature is 70°. 6, and coincides 
with that of Central Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The 
mean yearl} T temperature is 44°. 6, and corresponds with that 
of Wisconsin, Michigan, Central New York, Vermont, and 
New Hampshire. The summers are like those of Central 
Pennsylvania and Ohio ; the winters like those of New Eng- 
land and Canada. Spring opens about the same time that it 
does in New England. The first frosts occur about the 10th 
of September ; but the streams do not freeze till the last of 
November. 



14 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

Rev. Horace Bushnell, D.D., of Hartford, Conn., who 
passed a winter in Minnesota for his health, writes thus 

of tin.- climate : — 

" The winter climate is intensely cold, ami yet so dry and clear and still, 
fur tin' most part, as to create no very great suffering. One who is properly 
dressed finds the climate much more agreeable than the amphibious, half- 
fluid, balf-sloppy, graTe-Uke thill of the East. Heal snow-storms are rare: 
there were none l.» -t winter. A little more snow, to make better Bleighing, 
would lie an improvem< nt. As to rain in winter, it is almost unknown. 
There was not a drop of it last winter from the latter part of October to the 
middle or about the middle of March, except a slight drizzle on Thanks- 
giving Day." 

The railroads in Minnesota are not usually impeded by 
drifting snows more than those of the Middle and Eastern 
States. 

HEALTH. 

The air of Minnesota is very clear, pure, and bracing. 
There are many people living in the State who formerly were 
threatened with consumption, hut who, in their new homes, 
enjoy perfecl health. Upon this subject, Hon. Alexander 
Ramsey of the United-States Senate says, — 

u Within the past few years, Minnesota has been a popmar resort of 
invalid- afflicted with diseases of the throat and lungs ; and physicians who 
formerly sent their patients to languish among the perennial flowers of some 
soft southern sky now generally agree in prescribing the more elastic and 
invigorating air of the far North-western States as the most efficacious of 
inhalants. Dry air is a non-conductor of heat, like a garment of wool. The 
dry cold winter air stimulates the appetite and digestion: it quickens the 
circulation, and imparts elastic vigor and joyous exhilaration to body and 
mind. It 'jives their full effect to all the invigorating influences of a north- 
ern climate in building up the wasted strength of the body, freed from the 
injurious counter-influences of a damp atmosphere. I suppose it is owing 
partly to the same cause, that the scourge, fever and ague, is unknown in 
Minnesota." 

Rev. II. A. Boardman, D.D., of Philadelphia, says, — 

" Tn the stores and shops, on the streets and by the firesides, it is an every- 
day experience to meet with residents who came to Minnesota one, two, five, 
or ten years ago for their health, and, having regained it, decided to remain. 
I have talked with some, who,, having recovered, went away twice over, and 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 15 

then made up their minds, that, to live at all, they must live here. The com- 
mon mistake with consumptives is, that they defer coming until too late. 
Every train brings its quota of invalids ; and among them there are apt to be 
some whom no skill but that of the Great Physician could relieve. Far 
better if they had staid at home to 'die among their kindred.' But, on the 
other hand, there are witnesses here, by the hundred, to testily to the healing 
virtue of this climate in the incipient stages of pulmonary disease." 

Dr. Bushnell gives the following testimony : — 

"I went to Minnesota early in July, and remained till the latter part of 
the May following. I had spent a year in Cuba without benefit. I had 
spent also nearly a year in California, making a gain in the dry season, and 
a partial loss in the wet season, returning, however, sufficiently improved 
to resume my labors. Breaking down again from this only partial recovery, 
I made the experiment now of Minnesota; and submitting myself, on return- 
in"-, to a very rigid examination by a physician who did not know at all what 
verdict had been passed by other physicians before, he said, in accordance 
with their opinions, ' You have had a difficulty in your right lung ; but it is 
healed.' " 

It is a country where there are streams of pure water, and 
a dry atmosphere during the autumn and winter months ; as 
a consequence, fever and ague, and kindred malarial diseases, 
are unknown. It may be classed as one of the most health- 
ful climates of the world. 

EDUCATION. 

In every township throughout the State, two sections of 
land, numbered 16 and 36, are set aside for school-purposes. 
It is estimated that these lands will amount to two million 
nine hundred thousand acres. About one-eighth of the 
school-lands have already been sold ; and the fund now 
amounts to $2,476,220, which is exceeded only by the 
school-funds of Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. The 
interest of this fund, together with the proceeds of annual 
sales of grass and lumber from lands held by the State, 
and a two -mill tax on property, is sufficient to make the 
common schools of Minnesota equal to those of any other 
Western State. Three normal schools are in operation, — 
located at Winona, Mankato, and St. Cloud, —which, to- 
gether with the State University at St. Anthony, Carleton 



16 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

College at Northfield, and several high schools, furnish excel- 
lent opportunities to those desirous of full courses of instruc- 
tion. 

RAILROAD FACILITIES. 

Those colonists and settlers who build their homes along the 
line of the Northern Pacific Railroad will be exempt from the 
heavy taxes to which many new communities in the West are 
subjected, — taxes Imposed to secure the construction of rail- 
roads. In Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, great lia- 
bilities have, been incurred by the issuing of town and county 
bonds for such purposes ; but a glance at the accompanying 
map will make it plain that no such burdens will be imposed 
upon those who secure homes in Central Minnesota or in the 
Red-river Valley. By tin' St. Paul and Pacific (from St. Cloud 
to Brainerd) and by the Pembina Branch of the same road 
(from St. ( 'loud to Pembina), which crosses the Northern Pacif- 
ic in the Red-river Valley, the settlers on these lands will have 
communication with Minneapolis and St. Paul, — the manu- 
facturing and commercial centres of the north-west, — and 
with the great network of railroads radiating from those 
cities. 

With railways already constructed, with a gently-rolling 
country, with a soil admirably adapted for the making of 
smooth highways, with so large a fund for school-purposes, 
the rate of taxation will be far less than in most new commu- 
nities. 

COLONIES. 

Settlers will find it greatly to their advantage to go in colo- 
nics. Fifty or a hundred persons combining may secure, on 
favorable terms, all the land held by the railroad company in 
a township. "The colony system is calculated to supply the 
needs of all members of the community ; to furnish employ- 
ment to every industry. Wherever a colony is established, 
there will lie found near its centre the blacksmith, shoemaker, 
carpenter, mason, storekeeper, the post-office, the school-house, 
the Sunday school, the church; and the farmers will find a 
market for their grain at the railroad station. A hundred or 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 17 

more families uniting to form a community may insure every 
thin" - that goes to make up the sum of civilization at once, — 
"ood government, good neighbors, morality, security to prop- 
erty, comfort, and prosperity. 

The Boston colony at Detroit Lake, in township 139, range 
41, established in 1871, before the track had reached their 
township, is an illustration in point. Each member of the 
colony took one hundred and sixty acres of government land 
under the Homestead Act, and through a committee secured 
all the land belonging to the railroad at favorable rates and 
on easy terms of payment. The occupation of one-half of 
the land in the township has given an increased value not 
only to all the intermediate sections purchased from the rail- 
road, but to their own homesteads. 

In the vicinity of Detroit Lake there is a large body of 
hard wood — oak, ash, elm, maple, and birch — suitable for the 
manufacture of ploughs, reapers, mowers, wagons, and furni- 
ture of every description. Being situated so near the 
prairie-region, where there is a scarcity of timber for manufac- 
turing purposes, this forest-growth must ultimately be of great 
value. 

The Red-river Colony, in Clay County, is located in the 
valley of the Red River, and on its eastern border. The lands 
selected by the colonists are watered by the Buffalo, South 
Buffalo, Hay Creek, and numerous small lakes. The soil is 
deep and fertile, and yields a large crop of grass. The Buf- 
falo is fringed with timber, and furnishes several mill-sites. 
So attractive are the lands along this stream, that nearly all 
the wooded sections were occupied in 1871 by enterprising 
settlers before the surveys were completed by the United- 
States surveyors. The towns of Hawley and Glyndon are 
both within the limits of the land selected by the colonists. 
Glyndon is at the junction of the Northern Pacific with the 
Pembina Branch of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The 
town was located in May, 1872, and gives promise of being 
one of the most important points in North-western Minnesota. 
Several hundred families have signified their intention of 
locating in the vicinity during the present year. 

2 



18 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

SOLDIERS' COLONIES. 

The recent modification of the Homestead Law in favor of 
soldiers and Bailors, reducing the time of occupation before 
obtaining a title, coupled with the fact that the Northern Pa- 
cific Railroad Company offers very liberal terms, with long 
time I'm' payment, will doubtless induce thousands of veterans 
of the late war to secure homes in this fertile and inviting 
section of Minnesota. Lands which may be obtained by a 
residence of twelve or twenty-four months will soon be worth 
from ten to thirty dollars per acre, according to their fertility, 
and nearness to railroad stations. 

Soldiers residing in the same community, or formerly mem- 
bers of tli' 1 same command, can, by uniting, reap all the ben- 
efits of the new law and of the colony system combined. 
They will also have this marked advantage over ordinary 
colonists, that they can, after organizing, send out an agent 
or committee to examine different sections, select a location, 
and enter a homestead for each member of the colony ; the 
members themselves having six months' time, after the entry 
by the agent, before settling on and improving their home- 
steads. 

WHEN TO SETTLE. 

Settlers should be on the ground, if possible, in the month 
of June, that they may have time to break up a portion of 
their lands for the next year. The prairie-sod must be broken 
in June or July, when the grass-roots are filled with juice, 
to secure a thorough rotting of the turf. If turned early in 
June, potatoes and corn may be planted on the sod, and the 
yield will be about half a crop; but the ground will be in 
better condition for the succeeding year if nothing is planted 
upon the turf. In the following spring, the ground should be 
thoroughly harrowed, and the wheat drilled in, or sown broad- 
cast. If sown in May, it will be ready for the reaper early 
in August ; and, as soon as it is taken off, ploughing may com- 
mence for the next year's crop. 

Four oxen are needed to drag a plough turning a fourteen- 
inch furrow. Many settlers prefer oxen to horses for the first 
ploughing, inasmuch as they will work throughout the summer 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 19 

without grain, keeping in good flesh upon the prairie-grass ; 
while horses will need their daily allowance of grain. But 
for all farm-purposes other than this, horses are much more 
serviceable than oxen. The cost per acre for breaking is from 
three to four dollars. 

STOCK-RAISING. 

These lands are admirably adapted to the raising of stock. 
The grasses are nutritious and luxuriant. Shelter and feed- 
ing in winter will be needed, as in the Eastern and Middle 
States ; but a great amount of hay may be cut upon the prai- 
ries for that purpose at a cost of about three dollars a ton. 
Sheep thrive through all this section, and are not subject to 
foot-rot and other diseases prevalent in Ohio and Illinois, 
where the water is less pure, and the climate has a greater 
dampness. Sheep are adapted by nature to withstand cold ; 
but they will not thrive in a drizzly winter or a hot summer 
climate ; nor will they drink the water of muddy streams. 
Wool-growing in Minnesota has already become very profita- 
ble. The farmers find a market at Minneapolis, where there 
is a large manufactory of blankets, flannels, and other goods, 
which are already known as equal to any manufactured in the 
country. 

PRICE OF LAND. 

The Railroad Company is entitled to ten alternate sections 
per mile on each side of the road in the State of Minnesota ; 
making twenty sections to the mile, or twelve thousand eight 
hundred acres. The charter provides, that, if any portion of 
the land within the distance of twenty miles of the line shall 
have been already taken, the Company shall have the privi- 
lege of making up the deficiency beyond that limit to the dis- 
tance of forty miles from the line of the road. In the map 
accompanying this pamphlet, the twenty-mile limit is seen 
in the shaded portion. The lands near the line have been 
mostly appraised and graded according to their fertility, 
quality of soil, and proximity to railroad stations, and will be 
offered at exceedingly low prices, and on the following 
terms : — 



20 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

TERMS OF SALE. 
Payment for all lands (excepting timber-lands) may be made: — 

Ten (10) percent in Cash. 
Ten (10) per cent in One Year. 
Ten (10) per cent in Two Years. 
Ten (10) per cent in Three Years. 
Fifteen ( 1 ."> ) per cent in Four Years. 
Fifteen (15) per cent in Five Years. 
Fifteen (15) per cent in Six Years. 
Fifteen (15) per cent in Seven Years. 

The rate of interest on the deferred payments will be seven 7) per cent 
per annum, payable annually. 

The Company will also take their own bonds in payment, 
allowing the purchaser a premium of ten per cent. These 
bonds bear 7-A interest in gold, are at present sold at par, 
and are secured by a first mortgage on all the lands and all 
the property and the franchise of the Company. 

On the supposition that a settler purchases eighty acres 
of land on the 1st of June, 1872, at five dollars per acre, paying 
for it in instalments, his payments, with his interest account, 
would be as follows : — 



June 1, 



rear9. 


I 


'rincipal. 


Interest. 


Amount each year. 


1872 


10 per cent 


S40 




$40.00 


1873 


M 


40 


$25.20 


65.20 


1874 


M 


40 


22.40 


62.40 


1875 


«< 


40 


19.60 


59.60 


1876 


15 per cent 


60 


16.80 


76.80 


1877 


(i 


60 


12.60 


72.60 


1878 


« 


60 


8.40 


68.40 


1879 


M 


60 


4.20 


64.20 



Total $400 $109.20 $509.20 

Plans and descriptive notes of all the appraised lands will 
be found in the Company's offices at St. Paul. 

The Company will have agents at all important stations to 
give full information to settlers, and to assist them in finding 
desirable locations. The charter forbids the sale of any lands 
while the road is under construction at less than the govern- 
ment price, $2.50 per acre. The prices will vary for agri- 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 21 

cultural lands, from |2.50 to about $7 or $8, according to 
location and quality. The average price will be about $5 per 
acre ; which will be $1.23 less than the price paid for school- 
lands throughout the State, which have averaged $6.23 per 
acre. 

OUTFIT. 

Settlers will be able to obtain all implements for the farm 
at the prominent stations on the line of the road, — ploughs, 
harrows, drills, reapers, mowers, rakes, wagons, harnesses, 
and tools of all kinds. All articles of household furniture, — 
stoves, iron, wood and tin ware, bedsteads, chairs, tables, 
bureaus, bedding, — ready-made clothing, groceries, and dry- 
goods of every description, may be obtained at the stores 
already established at Duluth, Brainerd, Detroit Lake, and 
Moorhead. The colonist from an Eastern State will find it 
to his advantage to take no bulky articles to his new home, 
as every thing necessary for the farm and the house may be 
obtained on the spot at reasonable rates. 

Cheap freights can be had from all the principal places east 
by the lakes during the summer months. In all cases, it 
is best to send by a despatch company. Freight may be 
shipped from Boston and all points in the New-England 
States, and from New York and Cleveland, by the several 
despatch companies, in connection with the Vermont Central 
Railroad, to Sarnia and Duluth ; from New York over the Erie 
and Central Railways, and by the Union Steamboat Company 
from Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit, to Duluth ; from New 
York and Philadelphia over the Pennsylvania Central Road ; 
and by the Atlantic and Duluth line of steamers from Erie, 
Cleveland, and Detroit, to Duluth. 

FREE TRANSPORTATION FOR SETTLERS. 

Settlers purchasing forty acres or more of the Company's 
lands in Minnesota are allowed free transportation for them- 
selves, their wives, and children, over the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, when going to settle upon the lands purchased. 

Arrangements have been made by which parties of five or 
more, whether purchasing the Company's lands or settling on 



2*2 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

government lands, can obtain reduced rates of fare from all 
principal points east. 

ACCOMMODATIONS. 

Capacious and comfortable reception-houses are erected at 
Duluth, Brainerd, and Glyndon. Others will be built if 
Deeded. These houses are fitted up with cooking-stoves, wash- 
ing conveniences, and beds, andfere to be used while emigrants 
are looking about for farms. They are large enough for the 
accommodation of several hundred persons at a time, and will 
be under the charge of competent superintendents. Families 
will have an opportunity to do their own cooking and wash- 
ing ; and no charge will be made for the privileges of the 
house. Provisions will be furnished at cost. There Avill be 
a hospital attached to each establishment. 

Settlers can remain in these buildings while on their way 
to their own lands, without the expense they would otherwise 
be subjected to if compelled to stop at hotels. 

HOW TO SECURE GOVERNMENT LANDS. 

HOMESTEAD ENTRY. 

Under the Homestead Law, any person twenty-one years 
of age, or the head of a family, a citizen of the United 
States, or who shall have filed a declaration to become such, 
who has never borne arms against the goyernment, or given 
aid to its enemies, is entitled to enter one hundred and sixty 
acres of land, without cost, except the fees hereinafter stated. 
After five years' residence and improvement, the government 
gives a free title. Unmarried women and widows are enti- 
tled to the privileges and subject to the conditions of this 
law. Within the limits of the Railroad Land Grant, the 
homestead privilege is restricted to eighty acres instead 
of one hundred and sixt} r ; lands within these limits being 
considered worth twice as much as lands outside. The land 
grant, as stated elsewhere, extends twenty miles from the 
line of the railroad, on each side. 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 23 

* SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 

By the act of Congress of July 15, 1870, soldiers, sailors, 
and officers, who served ninety days during the Rebellion, and 
have remained loyal, are exempted from the restriction above 
noted, and may enter under the Homestead Act the full area 
of one hundred and sixty acres within railroad limits. 

PRE-EMPTION 

Under the Pre-emption Law, persons entitled to the privi- 
leges of the Homestead Law may acquire the right to pur- 
chase one hundred and sixty acres of government land, 
whether within railroad limits or not, by filing a declaration 
that he or she has settled upon and claims the same. Within 
railroad limits, the government price is two dollars and half 
per acre : outside of such limits, the price is one dollar and 
a .quarter. Pre-emptors are required to remain upon and im- 
prove the lands for six months. Taking of lands under the 
Pre-emption Law does not prevent entry under the Home- 
stead Law afterwards. The same person may enjoy all the 
privileges of both laws. A homestead entry may be changed 
to a pre-emption claim, after six months' residence, and a 
title obtained at once upon the payment of two doUars and 
a half per acre. 

FEES AND COMMISSIONS 

for homesteads, when the entry is made, are to be paid as 

follows : — 

IN MINNESOTA. 

Fees. Comm'n. Total. 

Acres, 160 outside railroad limits 610 00 $4 00 $14 00 

5 00 2 00 7 00 

5 00 1 00 6 00 

20 00 8 00 28 00 

10 00 4 00 14 00 

5 00 2 00 7 00 



80 " 
40 " 
160 within 
80 
40 " 



FREE HOMES FOR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 

THE NEW LAW. 

By act of Congress passed April, 1872, the law in regard 
to soldiers' homesteads is so amended, that, instead of a resi- 



li-4 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

donee of five years, a residence of from twelve to twenty months 
will entitle B soldier to B homestead of a hundred and sixty 
BCres within railroad limits. 

The law has the following provisions: — 

1. The homestead may be located six months before the 
commencement of improvements. 

2. The time which the soldier or sailor may have served in 
the army shall be deducted from the five years* occupancy 
required under former acts. 

3. The widow (if unmarried ) of any soldier, who, if living, 
would be entitled to a homestead, is also entitled to the 
benefit of the act: if she has died or has married again, the 
minor children of the deceased soldier, through their guardian, 
shall be entitled to the benefit of the act, subject to the 
required settlement and improvement. If the soldier died, 
during his term of service, the whole period of his enlistment 
is to be deducted from the five years. 

4. The entry or location may be made by an agent, winch 
shall hold for six months, when improvements must be com- 
menced by the soldier in person. 

There are other provisions, as will be seen by a perusal of 
the act : — 

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That every private soldier and 
officer who has served in the Army of the United States during the recent 
Rebellion for ninety days or more, and who was honorably discharged, and 
has remained loyal to the government, including the troops mustered into 
the service of the United States by virtue of the. third section of an act 
entitled " An Act making Appropriations for completing the Defences of 
Washington, and for Other Purposes," approved Feb. 13, 1862, and every 
seaman, marine, and officer who has served in the Navy of the United 
States, or in the .Marine Corps, during the Rebellion, for ninety days, and 
who was honorably discharged, and has remained loyal to the govern- 
ment, shall, on compliance with provisions of an act entitled " An Act to 
secure Homesteads to Actual Settlers on the Public Domain," and the acts 
amendatory thereof, as hereinafter modified, be, entitled to enter upon and 
receive patents for a quantity of public lands (not mineral) not exceeding 
a hundred and sixty acres, or one quarter section, to be taken in compact 
form according to legal subdivisions, including the alternate reserved sections 
of public lands alone; the line of any railroad or other public work, not 
otherwise reserved or appropriated, and other lands subject to entry under 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD 25 

the homestead laws of the United States : Provided, That said homestead 
settler shall be allowed six months after locating his homestead, within 
which to commence his settlement and improvement : And provided also, 
That the time which the homestead settler shall have served in the Army, 
Navy or Marine Corps, aforesaid, shall be deducted from the time here- 
tofore' required to perfect title, or, if discharged on account of wounds 
received or disability incurred in the line of duty, then the term of enlist- 
ment shall be deducted from the time heretofore required to periect title, 
without reference to the length of time he may have served : Provided, how- 
ever That no patent shall issue to any homestead settler who has not re- 
sided upon, improved, and cultivated his said homestead, for a period ot at 
least one year after he shall commence his improvements as aforesaid. 

Sect. 2. — That any person entitled under the provisions of the foregoing 
section to enter a homestead, who may have heretofore entered, under the 
homestead laws, a quantity of land less than a hundred and sixty acres, 
shall be permitted to enter, under the provisions of this act, so much land as, 
when added to the quantity previously entered, shall not exceed a hundred 

and sixty acres. 

Sect. 3. — That, in the case of the death of any person who would be 
entitled to a homestead under the provisions of the first section of this act, 
his widow, if unmarried, or, in case of her death or marriage, then his minor 
orphan-children, by a guardian duly appointed and officially accredited at 
the Department of the Interior, shall be entitled to all the benefits enumer- 
ated in this act, subject to all the provisions as to settlement and improve- 
ments therein contained: Provided, That, if such person died during his 
term of enlistment, the whole term of his enlistment shall be deducted from 
the time heretofore required to perfect the tide. 

Sect. 4. — That where a party, at the date of his entry of a tract of land 
under the homestead laws, or subsequently thereto, was actually enlisted and 
employed in the Army or Navy of the United States, his services therein shall, 
in the administration of said homestead laws, be construed to be equiva- 
lent to all intents and purposes, to a residence for the same length of time 
upon the tract so entered : Provided, That if his entry has been cancelled by 
reason of his absence from said tract while in the military or naval service 
of the United States, and such tract has not been disposed of, his entry shall 
be restored and confirmed: And provided further, That, if such tract has 
been disposed of, said party may enter another tract subject to entry under 
said laws; and his right to a patent therefor shall be determined by the 
proofs touching his residence and cultivation of the first tract, and his 
absence therefrom in such service. 

Sect 5 _ That any soldier, sailor, marine, officer, or other person coming 
within the provisions of this act may, as well by an agent as in person, enter 
upon said homestead: Provided, That said claimant in person shall, within 
the time prescribed, commence settlement and improvements on the same, 
and thereafter fulfil all the requirements of this act. 

Sect. 6. — That the Commissioner of the General Land Office shall have 



26 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

authority to make all needful rules and regulations to cany into effect the 
provisions of this act. 

By this act, any soldiers who have not already taken a 
homestead may Becore the rich wheat-lauds, supplied with 
wood and water, and near to lake transportation, along the 
line of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 



HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION. 

A liberal law has been passed by the Minnesota legislature 
in relation to homestead exemption. The provisions of the 
act are as follows : — 

" That a homestead consisting of any quantity of land not exceeding 
eighty acres, and the dwelling-house thereon and its appurtenances, to be 
selected by the owner thereof, and not included in any incorporated town, 
city, or village, or instead thereof, at the option of the owner, a quantity 
of land not exceeding in amount one lot, being within an incorporated town, 
city, or village, and the dwelling-house thereon, and its appurtenances, owned 
and occupied by any resident of this State, shall not be subject to attach- 
ment, levy, or sale upon any execution, or any other process issuing out of 
any court within this State. This section shall be deemed and construed to 
exempt such homestead in the manner aforesaid, during the time it shall be 
occupied by the widow or minor child or children of any deceased person 
who was, when living, entitled to the benefits of this act." 

There is also a liberal exemption from attachment b} r 
process of law on personal propert} r , exempting the family 
Bible, pictures, school-books, musical instruments, church- 
pew, cemetery-lot, all wearing-apparel, beds, stoves, and 
furniture, not exceeding five hundred dollars in value ; also 
a certain number of cows, sheep, and working-team, with a 
year's food for the same ; a wagon, sleigh, and farming-imple- 
ments, not exceeding one hundred dollars in value ; also a 
year's supply of family provisions or growing crops, and fuel, 
and seed-grain not exceeding fifty bushels of wheat, fifty of 
oats, five of potatoes, and one of corn ; also mechanics' or 
miners' tools, with four hundred dollars' worth of stock-in- 
trade, and the library and implements of professional men. 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 27 

COST OF A HOUSE. 

Seasoned lumber from Brainerd and Minneapolis may be 
purchased in those places of the manufacturers, who will 
deliver it at any station; or it may be had of dealers at 
Detroit Lake, Oak Lake, Glyndon, Moorhead, and other 
stations on the Northern Pacific Road. A settler who can 
use a saw, axe, and hammer, may build himself a comfortable 
dwelling in a very short time. Where lumber can be obtained 
for sixteen or twenty dollars per thousand, it will be much 
cheaper to build a board house than one of logs, as there 
will be a great saving of time and labor. 

A house containing one room 14 x 16 feet will require about 
fifteen hundred feet of lumber for its construction. Such a 
house, with sheathing-paper, shingled roof, door, two windows, 
and double floors, can be built for about a hundred dollars, 
and would be warm in winter. 

A very comfortable house, large enough for a family of sev- 
eral persons, may be built at a cost of about two hundred 
dollars. It would be 16 x 20 feet inside ; contain a living- 
room 13 x 16, bedroom 7 x 12, pantry 4 x 7 on the ground- 
floor, with stairs leading to the attic. The studding would 
be twelve feet from the sills to the eaves ; the lower story 
eight feet. Four feet above, with a sloping roof, will give an 
attic large enough for good sleeping-accommodations. ^ The 
house would need five windows, one outside and two inside 
doors. The items of expense would be, approximately, as 
follows : — 

4,000 feet common lumber at $20 $80.00 

4,000 No. 2 shingles at $4 ir >- 00 

Nails 10 - 00 

Sheathing-paper 20 - 00 

Doors and windows 18.00 

Labor • 30 - 0Q 

$174.00 
Twenty per cent for contingencies 34.80 

Total $ 208 - 80 



28 



MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 



The following diagram shows the arrangement of the inte- 
rior of the house : — 



-i __i 



PaHti\y 



Liv'iplc ^ooh/\ 

16 X 13 



BED R.OON1 
7 X 12 



Al 



JL= 



PLAN.— Scale 3-1G of an INCH to the foot 

The front elevation will be seen in the cut below. The 
eaves should project a foot or more to carry the rain from the 
sides of the building. Tile chimneys can be purchased at St. 
Paul and Minneapolis, and doubtless will be for sale by the 




FRONT elevation. 



merchants at all the principal stations. Until brick or ready- 
made chimneys can be obtained, a joint of stove-pipe will 
serve instead, only great care should be taken to protect the 



surrounding wood from taking lire. 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 



29 



The plan is drawn on a scale of three-sixteenths of an inch 
to the foot : so that a settler with the plan before him may 
make his own calculations, and be his own joiner. 

The house should front toward the south or east. The 
prevailing winds in Minnesota are from the west and south- 
west. Easterly storms do not often occur. With a southern 
or eastern exposure, the sun during winter will be felt in both 
the living and sleeping rooms. In building the house, oaken 
posts at each corner, three feet in length and eight or ten 
inches in diameter, should be sunk into the ground nearly 




END ELEVATION. 



their full length, and the sills spiked firmly to them. This, 
with proper bracing, will give sufficient firmness to the 
structure against the winds. In the fall, it should be well 
banked with straw or earth. 

With battened walls and sheathing-paper, such a house is 
very warm, and will give good accommodations till the owner 
is in circumstances to replace it with one of more ample 
dimensions. The walls of the cellar may be protected by 
timber until stone or brick can be readily obtained. 



READY-MADE HOUSES. 

At Brainerd, ready-made houses of various sizes may be 
had of a manufacturing company, which may be ordered in 



30 



MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 



advance, costing from one hundred dollars to five hundred 
dollars. They arc strongly built, have godd frames, matched 
floors and roof, tongued and grooved ceilings, with windows, 
doors, sash, and chimney. 

It is expected that this manufacturing company will be 
prepared, during the year, to supply settlers with brick at a 
price not exceeding eight dollars to ten dollars per thousand 
at the kiln. 

FARM -IMPLEMENTS AND TEAMS. 

It should be the aim of every settler to get a few acres of 
land ploughed in June or July, in order to put in a crop next 
spring. A team of four oxen or horses will turn two acres 
of sod per day. Twenty acres of land broken this summer, 
requiring ten days' labor, will enable the settler to harvest,' 
probably, three hundred bushels of grain, besides potatoes,' 
corn, and other products, next year, if the season be propitious. 
Even house-building should be put aside to accomplish that 
end. A tent or a covered wagon will give good shelter 
during the summer in the delightful climate of Minnesota. 
There will be time enough to build a house after it is too 
late to plough. Settlers, by « changing work," can save 
considerable outlay the first year. 

A man owning a yoke of oxen and a plough can unite with 
a neighbor, and make up a team for ploughing. The first year 
will be mostly devoted to getting ready for the next. No 
drill, reaper, or thresher will be needed for a twelvemonth. 
A yoke of oxen or a span of horses, a wagon, plough, harrow, 
shovel, hoe, axe, chains, and a grindstone are the main imple- 
ments needed the first season. For the second season, a seed- 
plough, a drill, combined reaper and mower, and a rake must 
be added. Two or three farmers may unite and own the im- 
plements in common while getting started. 



ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES. 

! rates of fare from Boston am 

Where parties of five or more go in company, settlers will 



Wliatare the rates of fare from Boston and Neto York to 
the Red River ? 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 31 

obtain from the different railroads from twenty to thirty 
per cent discount from regular rates. Full information on 
this point can be obtained at the principal railway ticket- 
offices in the cities. As elsewhere stated, all persons who 
purchase lands of the Company may obtain free tickets over 
the Northern Pacific Road when going to settle. 

What is the lowest estimate of expenses and outlay for the first 
year ? 

The expense for a man who leaves his family behind till he 
can get started will be, approximately, as follows : — 

v , e , art $125.00 

Yoke or oxon w 

_ 75.00 

VV a"on 

Plough 25 - 00 

House with one room 100.00 

Stove 25 - 00 

Chains, axe, shovel, grindstone, &c 25.00 

$375.00 
Living will cost about $3 per week. 

Persons who can command from five hundred to a thou- 
sand dollars can begin under very favorable auspices by 
settling on government land, or by purchasing of the Com- 
pany, and paying in instalments. 

What are the chances for employment ? 

During the present year, 1872, from five to six thousand 
men will be needed on the construction of the Northern 
Pacific Road in Dakota, and on the St. Paul and Pacific in 
the Red-river Valley. Many carpenters, blacksmiths, shoe- 
makers, tinware manufacturers, masons, and day-laborers will 
find employment ; but clerks and book-keepers will not be 
needed. 

When is the best time to go to Minnesota? 

Those settlers who intend to engage in farming should go 
in May or June, and plough as much as possible before the 
end of July. 

Are there any mills along the line of the railroad ? 

There are saw and planing mills at Brainerd, also at the 



32 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

crossing of the Ottertail River, and a saw-mill at Fort Aber- 
crombie. Saw and grist mills probably will be established 
during the present summer at Detroit Lake and Glyndon. 

Do the Indiana give settlers any trouble ? 

There are only a few Indians in Minnesota, — the Chippe- 
was, — and they have always been friendly : they are now 
on reservations, living in houses, and cultivating the land. 
They are not troublesome. 

Which is the best section for raising stock? 

The entire region between Leaf River and the Red River 
is alike adapted to stock-raising and grain-growing. 

What does it cost to fence land? 

From Lake Superior to Lakeside Station, nearly every sec- 
tion of land has sufficient timber for farm-purposes ; and the 
cost will be wholly one of labor. In the vicinity of Detroit 
Lake there is an abundance of tamarack, suitable for fencing, 
which can be delivered by rail, in the Red-river Valley, at 
a cost not exceeding seventy-five cents to the rod, including 
labor in cutting, freight on the cars, and building. 

Shall I take my family ivitli me, and move to Minnesota before 
providing a home ? 

Many immigrants from Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and other 
Western States, having sold their old homes, start with 
their families in search of new ones. They pack their fur- 
niture in a canvas-covered wagon, take their flocks and herds, 
their cooking utensils and provisions with them, and live by 
the way. They sleep in their wagon, or beneath it, and 
travel till they find a locality that suits them. From May 
till October, a family may thus travel, and experience no great 
hardship. But the settlers who go by rail will be differently 
situated. They may take their families with them, and find 
temporary accommodations in the reception-houses ; but, if 
their families are conveniently located, it may be better to 
leave them behind until a selection is made and a shelter 
erected. 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 33 

Can wagons, ready made, be purchased along the line of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad ? 

There are several wagon manufactories in the State, — at 
Minneapolis, St. Paul, and other places; and the manufac- 
turers usually have agencies at all the principal railroad 
stations. The Michigan manufacturers also have agencies 
throughout the State. 

Can ploughs, reapers, rakes, and other agricultural imple- 
ments, be obtained along the line of the road ? 

Nearly all of the Eastern manufacturers of agricultural im- 
plements have general agents in the State, and sub-agents at 
all the principal railroad-stations. Settlers will be able to 
purchase farming-implements of every description. 

Can- household furniture be obtained? and is there a supply of 
food for the present season ? 

All articles necessary for housekeeping — stoves, tables, 
chairs, beds, &c. — may be obtained at stores already estab- 
lished. Settlers having bedding will do well to take it with 
them. Beef, pork, flour, potatoes, and other provisions may 
be purchased at the stores, or of the farmers of Ottertail, 
Becker, Douglas, Wilkin, and other counties already partially 
settled. 

If a settler goes to Minnesota this season, will he be able to 
raise food enough for himself and family through the year? 

If he makes his location by the middle or even during the 
month of June, he may plant potatoes, sow turnips, and be 
very sure of obtaining good crops. Early varieties of corn 
may be planted, with the prospect of a fair yield. After the 
furrow is turned, it may be planted by chopping a place with a 
single stroke of a hatchet, dropping the corn in, and pressing 
it down with the foot. Squashes, pumpkins, and melons 
grow on the sod. Beans also may be grown on the turf. By 
using early varieties of seed, an abundant supply of these 
articles of food may be raised for the use of a family. 

Can brick, stone, and lime be obtained along the line of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad? 



34 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

Clay of superior quality may be obtained at many points. 
In the division east of the Mississippi, along the Crow's 
Wing, at Detroit Lake, Audubon, on the banks of the Buf- 
falo, are clay formations, with wood near at hand, for the 
manufacture of brick. Near the junction of the Northern 
Pacific with the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad, 
there is an extensive slate formation, where the rock can be 
easily quarried. At several points along the Mississippi River 
are granite ledges. At Sauk Rapids, near St. Cloud, an ex- 
tensive quarry has been opened ; and, upon the completion of 
the Brainerd Branch of the St. Paul and Pacific, stone from 
that quarry can be transported to any point on the line of the 
Northern Pacific. Building-stone may be obtained from the 
Leaf Hills, near Perham Station. Large bowlders are found 
near Hawley, on the eastern edge of the Red-river Valley, 
from which suitable stone may be obtained for the founda- 
tions of buildings. 

Between Detroit Lake and Hawley there are bowlders of 
limestone, which might be burned ; but lime can be obtained 
from Minneapolis at cheap rates. 

Upon the completion of the road to the coal-field of 
Dakota, brick-making can be carried on at many points along 
the line of the road. 



INDUCEMENTS TO COLONISTS. 

Attention is invited to the following summary of facts in 
regard to these lands in Central and Western Minnesota : — 

They are acknowledged to be better adapted to the culti- 
vation of wheat than any other section of the continent. 
■ They produce as much grain per acre as the best lands of 
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, 
or Nebraska. 

They are also adapted to the production of oats, rye, barley, 
potatoes, and garden vegetables, and produce more than the 
averages of those States. 

They are supplied with a great variety of timber ; and lum- 
ber is much cheaper than in most of the Western States. Set- 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 35 

tiers will have a supply of wood and coal, and may always 
count upon having cheap fuel. 

They are watered by running streams, lakes, and ponds of 
the purest water ; and farmers will never need artesian wells, 
or be dependent on irrigation. 

They are located in a healthful climate, where fever and 
ague and other malarial diseases are unknown. 

They are as well adapted to the raising of stock as to the 
cultivation of grain. 

They are on a line of railway already constructed : conse- 
quently settlers will never be called upon to pay taxes, or to 
bond their towns, cities, and counties, or to mortgage their 
farms, to secure railway facilities. 

They are offered at a low price, and on easy terms of pay- 
ment; and while, at present, the railroad company sells its 
bonds at par, it receives them in payment for lands at ten per 
cent premium. 

Settlers and their families purchasing forty acres or more 
of land of the Company will receive free tickets over the 
Northern Pacific Railroad when going to settle. 

All facilities and advantages furnished by the Company to 
settlers on railroad lands are also furnished to homestead set- 
tlers on the alternate government sections, except the free 
transportation over the Northern Pacific Road. 

Transportation at reduced rates will be furnished from all 
principal points East. The Company will look after the 
welfare of settlers, and provide them with comfortable recep- 
tion-houses while selecting lands, &c, without charge. 

That these lands will rapidly rise in value is evident from 
the fact, that the rates of transportation to Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, and other Eastern cities, by water, are no 
higher than from Central Illinois or Eastern Iowa, where 
improved farms have an average value of thirty-five dollars 
per acre. 

They are located in a State that lias a larger school-fund 
than any, with the exception of Massachusetts, New York, 
and Ohio. 

They are located in a State which had but five thousand 
and fortv-two inhabitants in 1850, and had four hundred and 



36 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

forty-two thousand in 1870, and, by the same ratio, will have 
a population of a million and a quarter in 1880. 

They are located on a railroad which will be completed to 
the Missouri River during 1872, and to the Pacific Ocean at 
an early day, — the shortest line between the Atlantic and the 
Pacific, and destined to become one of the great highways 
of the world. 

With these and other advantages that might be named, it 
is evident that there are no other lands so inviting to settlers 
who are seeking new homes in the West. 

PROGRESS OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

The construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad was 
begun in June, 1870, and was completed across the State to 
Dakota in December, 1871, — a distance of two hundred and 
twenty-eight miles from the junction with the Lake Superior 
and Mississippi Road, or two hundred and fifty-two miles 
from lake-navigation at Duluth. The section west of Minne- 
sota, between the Red River and the Missouri, was put under 
contract in October, 1871, to be completed during the summer 
of 1872, — a farther distance of a hundred and ninety-nine 
miles, or a total from lake-navigation of four hundred and 
fifty-one miles. 

A preliminary survey of the line between the Missouri and 
the Yellowstone was made in the fall of 1871, and will be 
put under contract as soon as the locating surveys are com- 
pleted, during the summer of 1872. The distance from the 
Yellowstone to the Missouri is two hundred and twenty- 
nine miles. Explorations and surveys were made of the 
entire region between the Missouri and the Pacific Ocean in 
1871, and will be continued through 1872. 

Sixty-five miles of the western section of the road, between 
the Columbia River and Puget Sound, are under construction, 
to be completed during the summer of 1872 ; and the remain- 
der of the section will be put under contract during the year. 
The enterprise will be pushed to completion with the utmost 
possible despatch. 

The future of the Northern Pacific Railroad is thus set 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 37 

forth by Gov. Hawley of Connecticut, in a letter written from 
the Red River, and published in the Hartford Courant, in 
1871: — 

"In its first thousand miles, the Northern Pacific Road will pass through 
the best wheat-growing region in the world, of vast extent and great fertili- 
ty. It will run along the rich garden-lands of the valleys of the Red River 
of the north, the Missouri, and the Yellowstone. The products of the wide 
and fertile regions of the Assinniboin and Saskatchewan will find their way 
to market over its rails ; and the rapidly increasing volume of mining-business 
already existing in Montana will inevitably accept of the facilities the road 
will afford. The excellence of the country, and the rapidity with which it 
is fillino- with settlers, give promise of a local business whose figures alone 
will riv°al the present earnings of the other line. And when to this is added 
the through traffic of the world, there is left no room to doubt that the North- 
ern Pacific will, from the start, perform in its field as great a work as is 
now being done by its more southern neighbor. Were there, then, nothing 
but the business of the road upon which to depend, its projectors might rea- 
sonably hope for a paying return ; but behind and supporting all is the 
immense grant of fifty million acres of land. These lands are not irreclaim- 
able waste places, but are mainly fertile plains and rich valleys, well 
watered, and lying in the midst of a temperate climate." 

RAILWAY CONNECTIONS. 

The grading of the Brainerd Branch of the St. Paul and 
Pacific Railroad was completed in 1871, and the track will be 
laid by midsummer of the present year (1872) ; thus making- 
direct connection with Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the railway 
system of the country. 

The St. Cloud and Pembina Branch of the St. Paul and 
Pacific Road, which crosses the Northern Pacific at Glyndon, 
is under contract to be completed the present year. The 
construction of these roads in connection with the Northern 
Pacific gives railroad facilities to the entire region of Central 
and North-western Minnesota ; while the immediate extension 
of the line to -the Missouri, and the assurance of its early 
completion to the Pacific Ocean, and of its becoming one of 
the great highways of the world, give a value to the lands 
along the line unsurpassed by those of any other section of 
the continent. 



38 



MTNNESOTA LANDS OF THE 



STATIONS ON THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD 
FROM DULUTH. 



Miles. 
LAKE SUPERIOR & MISSISSIPPI. 

Duluth. 

Rice's Point 1 

Oneota 4 

Spirit Lake 9 

Pond du Lac 15 

Thomson 23 

NORTHERN PACIFIC. 

Junction 24 

Komoka 25 

Norman 33 

Island Lake 46 

Sicotte's 57 

Sandy River 05 

McGregor 70 

Kimberley 76 

Aiken 88 

Withinsrton 98 



Miles. 
Brainerd (junction with St. 
Cloud Branch of St. Paul & 

Pacific) 115 

Pillager 127 

Motley 137 

Aldrich 151 

Wadena 161 

Leaf River 166 

Perham 185 

Anthon 196 

Detroit Lake 206 

Audubon 213 

Lakeside 219 

Ilawley 229 

Glyndon (junction with Pem- 
bina Branch St. Paul & Pa- 
cific) 241 

Moorhead 252 



As a guide to those who may wish to go in colonies, the 
following articles of association are suggested, to be modified, 
of course, by those associating for such a purpose. 



ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION TO BE USED IN 
FORMING A COLONY. 



Article. 1. — This Association shall be known by the name of 

Colony ; its object 
being the purchase and settlement of lands on the line of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad Company in the 

of and the settlement, under the Home- 

stead Act, of the alternate government sections along the line of said road. 

Art. 2. — The officers of the Colony shall be a President, a Vice-Presi- 
dent, a Corresponding Secretary, a Recording Secretary, and a Treasurer, 
who shall perform the usual duties pertaining to such offices. They shall 
be elected by ballot, and the term of each be for one year from their elec- 
tion. 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 39 

Art. 3. — There shall be a Committee on Finance, elected at the same 
time and in the same manner, to consist of 

members, whose duty it shall be to examine into the financial affairs of the 
Colony, and who shall at all times have access to all of its books and papers. 
No money shall be paid , until the accounts are approved by the Finance 
Committee. 

Art. 4. — The Colony is empowered to appoint Locating and other 
Committees as may be found necessary for its prosperity ; the powers and 
duties of such Committees to be defined on appointment. 

Art. 5. ^ — It shall require a majority vote of two-thirds of all the mem- 
bers present at a regular meeting for the admission of any member into the 
Colony ; such vote to be by ballot in all cases ; and every person so elected 
shall be of lawful age and good moral character, and shall subscribe to the 
Articles of Association and By-Laws, anS pledge himself to promote, to the 
extent of his ability, the best interests of the Colony. 

Art. 6. — The fee of membership shall be dollars, 

and must be paid to the Treasurer of the Colony (who will receipt for the 
same) within days after the member is notified of 

his election. 

Art. 7. — No member of the Co.ony shall engage in the manufacture or 
sale of intoxicating liquor of any kind, or permit it to be sold on his prem- 
ises, except for purely medicinal purposes. All conveyances of real estate 
made by the Colony, or any member of it, shall contain a covenant running 
with the land, prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquor on such real estate 
or any part thereof, except for purely medicinal purposes ; and, in case of 
violation of such clause, then such real estate shall revert to its former owner 
or owners, their heirs or assigns. All appropriations of money shall be made 
by a vote of the members of the Colony at a regular meeting. All drafts 
for expenditures shall be drawn by the President on the Treasurer, and 
countersigned by the Finance Committee. The Treasurer shall be required 
to give security in such amount as the Finance Committee shall determine. 

Art. 9. — The Annual Meeting for the election of officers shall be held 
on in each year ; 

and regular meetings for the election of members and appropriation of 
money shall be held ly. Any meeting called by the 

President at request of members of this Colony shall 

be held to be a regular meeting. 

Art. 10. — The Colony may make such By-Laws as may be found use- 
ful; and such By-Laws, as well as these Articles of Association, may be 
amended at any regular meeting by a majority of all the members of the 
Colony, provided the proposed amendment has been submitted at a former 
regular meeting. 

We, the subscribers, by these presents associate ourselves to form a settle- 
ment in and agree to be governed by these articles, 
and such further rules and regulations as a majority of the Association may 
make at any regular meeting. 



40 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 



UNITED-STATES LAND OFFICES. 

At Duluth, for all lands along the line of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad east of Range XXIV. 

At St. Cloud, for nearly all the lands between Range 
XXIV. and Range XXXVI., including the lands in the 
counties of Crow Wing, Cass, Todd, and Wadena. 

At Taylor's Falls, for a small portion of the timbered lands 
near Lake Mill Lacs. 

At Alexandria, for all lands in Ottertail and Wilkin Coun- 
ties. 

At Audubon, for all lands in Becker and Clay Counties. 



ROUTES FROM THE EAST BY RAILROAD AND 
STEAMER. 

FROM BOSTON. 

By Vermont Central Line to Ogdensburg, and Grand 
Trunk to Sarnia ; to Duluth by steamer. 

By Boston and Albany and New York Central Line to 
Buffalo ; to Duluth by steamer. 

FROM NEW YORK. 

By Erie Railroad to Buffalo ; steamer to Duluth. 
By Hudson River and New York Central to Buffalo ; 
steamer to Duluth. 

By Pennsylvania Central to Erie ; steamer to Duluth. 

FROM PHILADELPHIA. 

By Pennsylvania Central to Erie ; to Duluth by steamer. 

The time by the above routes will be from five to seven 
days. 

All of the steamers on Lake Erie stop at Cleveland and 
Detroit. Settlers from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 41 

Michigan, can take passage from one of those ports, and have 
a reduction of rates by applying to the proper agents. 

Settlers who prefer to travel the entire distance by rail 
may obtain tickets by the way of Chicago and St. Paul. 
The expense will be about one-fourth more than by the 
lakes. 

A reduction of from twenty to thirty per cent from regular 
rates of transportation will be made to settlers, or members 
of a colony, on their application to the Superintendent 
of Emigration, 120 Broadway, New York, or by giving 
satisfactory evidence to the local agents of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad in the Eastern States that they intend to 
purchase land of the Company, or to pre-empt government 
land along the line of the road 



. LANDS IN THE TERRITORIES. 

The Northern Pacific Railroad has been surveyed through 
the Territories of Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, 
to Puget Sound; and the lands along the line have been 
withdrawn from public sale by the government ; but the 
even-numbered sections may be taken, as in Minnesota, under 
the pre-emption and homestead laws. 

The patents for the lands to which the Northern Pacific 
Railroad is entitled are received from the United States Gov- 
ernment, as fast as the road is constructed, in sections of twenty 
miles ; and, as soon as the surveys are completed, they will be 
appraised, and offered for sale on the same terms as the lands 
in Minnesota. 

DAKOTA. 

The townships in the Red-river Valley on the Dakota side 
have been surveyed, and pre-emptors may take their claims, 
as in Minnesota ; the townships farther west have not 
been subdivided, but claims may be taken subject to the cor- 
rections made by the surveys when completed. 



\'2 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

The Red-river Valley in Dakota has the same general 
characteristics as on the the Minnesota side, — a deep loam, 
exceedingly fertile, and bearing luxuriant crops of native 
grasses. The level prairie region extends west about fifty 
miles, changing to undulations in the vicinity of the Sheyenne 
River. 

The country between the Red River and the Missouri is 
watered by the Rush, Maple, Sheyenne, and James Rivers, 
and small lakes and ponds. There are narrow fringes of 
timber along the streams ; but this region will be mainly 
supplied with timber from Minnesota, and with coal from 
the Missouri River. It is a section of country admirably 
adapted to the raising of stock. It has been the favorite 
haunt of the buffalo, — the summer pasture where myriads 
of animals have fattened upon the nutritious grasses. The 
winters are milder than in Minnesota, and the fall of snow 
less than in that State. The spring opens about tw r o weeks 
earlier on the Missouri at Fort Rice than in the Red-river 
Valley. 

The Northern Pacific Railroad will cross the Missouri at 
Burnt Boat Island, and follow up the valley of the Heart 
River through the coal-field of Dakota. The coal-formation 
shows itself about fifty miles west of the Missouri, and ex- 
tends all the way to the Yellowstone, — a distance of one 
hundred and seventy-five miles. There is an abundance of 
timber on the Missouri and the Yellowstone, and on the 
upper waters of the Little Missouri. The lumber may 
be rafted down these streams to the line of the Northern 
Pacific Road, and sent by rail to the settlers along the 
line. 

Settlers wishing to make a home in Dakota wall reach the 
lands along the line of the Northern Pacific by taking the 
cars to Moorhead, or beyond, as the track may be completed. 
Steamers ascend the Missouri from Sioux City to Fort Benton ; 
but the distance from Sioux City, in Iowa, to Burnt Boat 
Island, is between eight hundred and nine hundred miles, and 
is very tedious, requiring from two to three weeks' time. The 
most feasible route, after midsummer of the present year 
(1872), will be by the Northern Pacific Road. 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 43 

MONTANA 

According to the estimate of the Surveyor-General, there 
are twenty million acres of land in Montana that may be 
classed as agricultural. About one million five hundred 
thousand acres have been claimed under the pre-emption and 
homestead laws. 

The lands in the mining-region of Montana on the Galla- 
tin, Madison, and Jefferson forks of the Missouri, in the 
vicinity of Helena, and in the Deer Lodge and Missoula 
Valleys, have been surveyed, and are open to pre-emption 
and homestead settlement. 

Montana contains a population estimated, at the present 
time, at about thirty thousand. It is the richest gold-field of 
the continent, producing more of the precious metals per 
annum than any other State or Territory. It is watered by 
numerous streams, has a healthful climate, more genial even 
than Minnesota. Very little snow falls in the valleys ; and 
sheep, cattle, and horses are not often housed in winter. 

It is believed that Montana possesses more advantages for 
the raising of stock than any other section of the United 
States. The grasses are exceedingly nutritious. The "Bunch 
Grass " is said to be more nutritious than the celebrated 
" Blue Grass " of Kentucky. It dries in the fall ; and the 
cattle feed upon it in the pastures during the winter, prefer- 
ring it to clover or timothy, and are fat enough for market in 
the spring. This abundance of pasturage, with pure water, 
and a climate so mild that cattle may be kept in the pastures 
through the year, will make this an attractive region to the 
stock-grower. Montana is admirably adapted to sheep-hus- 
bandry ; and it is believed that the long staple, silver-lustred 
wools, now obtained almost wholly from foreign countries, 
may be produced in perfection. Upon the completion of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad to the Yellowstone River, there 
will be cheap transportation to Eastern markets from these 
incomparable pasture-lands. 

There is an abundance of timber, — pine, cedar, oak, and 
other woods. The soil in the valleys is very fertile, producing, 
not unfrequently, fifty and even sixty bushels of wheat to the 



41 MINNESOTA LANDS OF THE 

acre. Rye, oats, barley, potatoes, corn, and garden vegetables 
of enormous size, are raised in great abundance. 

The present route to Montana is by the Union Pacific 
Railroad to Corrinne, and thence by stage to Helena, — a dis- 
tance of between five hundred and six hundred miles. Dur- 
ing the summer months, steamboats ascend the Missouri from 
Omaha to Fort Benton. Upon the completion of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad to the Missouri, regular lines of steamers will 
ply from Burnt Boat Island, the point of crossing, to Fort 
Benton. 

The present rates of fare from New York to Helena : first- 
class tickets, one hundred and thirty-six dollars ; second-class, 
one hundred and fourteen dollars. 

The stage-fare from Corrinne to Helena is sixty-six dollars, 
first class ; thirty-five dollars, second class. Families or colo- 
nies will do well to take wagons from Corrinne with supplies 
for eighteen or twenty days. In the spring of 1873, the 
cheapest and quickest route will be by the Northern Pacific 
to the Missouri River, and thence by steamer to Fort Benton. 

IDAHO. 

The line of the Northern Pacific Railroad passes through 
the northern portion of Idaho. It is a country well supplied 
with timber, with a fertile soil "in the valleys, and excellent 
pasturage on the mountains. The lands are not yet surveyed ; 
and there are but few settlers at present, except in the mining 
camp. Upon the completion of the road, it will be an attrac- 
tive region for emigrants. 

The valleys in the southern portions of the Territory are 
narrow, and have comparatively a small area suited to agri- 
culture. The climate is more severe than in the northern 
sections, where, as in Montana, cattle are not brought in from 
the pastures during the winter. 

The stockmen of the southern counties are accustomed to 
drive their herds northward in the fall to avail themselves of 
the rich pastures of the Upper Columbia, where there is an 
abundance of pure water, and where the snow-fall is not so 
great as in more southern latitudes. 



NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 45 

WASHINGTON. 

The line of the Northern Pacific Railroad follows down the 
valley of the Columbia River to a point opposite Portland in 
Oregon, and up the Cowlitz, a branch of the Columbia, to 
Puget Sound. The lands west of the Cascade Mountains have 
been surveyed, and may be taken by pre-emption and home- 
stead claims. The area west of the Cascade range is about 
twenty thousand square miles, three-fourths of which is 
covered with timber, — pine, cedar, fir, spruce, hemlock, oak, 
maple, ash, and other woods. 

As a lumbering region, Washington Territory excels all 
others in the world ; and to the lumberman there is no other 
locality offering such advantages. The harbors of the sound 
are deep and capacious, and vessels may be loaded direct from 
the mills. The manufactured lumber exported from Wash- 
ington amounts to two hundred million feet per annum, and 
is sent to all parts of the world. California, Chili, Peru, 
China, Japan, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific, receive 
their supplies of lumber from this Territory. Masts and 
spars are shipped to England, France, and other European 
countries. 

The prairies of Washington are of limited extent, in com- 
parison with Minnesota and Dakota, and consequently are 
being rapidly taken by pre-e»ptors. The soil of the timbered 
lands is of good quality, and, when cleared, will make fine 
farms. The yield of wheat, like that of Oregon, is not un- 
frequently forty and even fifty bushels to the acre. All other 
grains are grown in perfection, with the exception of corn. 
The summer nights, like those of England, are too cool to 
raise good crops of this grain, though thirty and forty bushels 
to* the acre are sometimes produced. 

The winter climate is mild. Very little snow falls west 
of the Cascade Mountains ; ice rarely forms ; and the tem- 
perature is so genial, that flowers bloom throughout the year. 

The Columbia River, and all of the streams emptying into 
the Pacific Ocean, and the waters of Puget Sound, are filled 
with salmon, which are caught in large quantities, and sent to 
all parts of the world. 






46 NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

The Northern Pacific Railway is now under construction 
from Kalama, on the Columbia River, to Olympia and Puget 
Sound, and will be completed between those points the 
present year. The lands owned by the Company are under 
appraisement, and will soon be offered for sale. 

Settlers wishing to occupy those lands may reach them by 
the line of the Union and Central Pacific Railway to San 
Francisco, and thence by steamer to Kalama. 

Full information may be obtained in regard to that section 
of the country, upon application to the office of the North- 
ern Pacific Railroad, Kalama, Washington Terri- 
tory, or to 120 Broadway, New York. 



PROSPECTUS. 
A Railroad Bond and Real Estate Mortgage Combined. 

Bonds Receivable for Lands at 1.10. 

In its first-mortgage gold bonds, now selling at par and 
accrued interest, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company 
furnishes to the public an investment security which combines 
the ready negotiability, the convenience, and the high credit 
of a first-class railroad bond, with the solidity and safety of a 
real estate mortgage on land worth at least twice the amount 

loaned. 

At the present gold premium they yield 81 per cent inter- 
est, — over one-third more than United States^ 5-20's. Their 
elements' of strength and safety are the following : — 

I. They are the standard obligation of a strong corporation, 
which represents in its shareholders and managers large cap- 
ital and railroad experience,* and is engaged in prosecuting a 
business-enterprise whose great usefulness and solid success 
are not matters of doubt. 

II. They are a first mortgage on the road, its right of way, 
rolling-stock, telegraph-line, equipments, and franchises. 

III. They are a first lien upon the traffic or net earnings 
of the road. The net receipts of the first trans-continental 
railroad, in the second year after completion, and mainly from 
local business, were equal to nine per cent on the total esti- 
mated cost of the Northern Pacific Road. 

IV They are a first and only mortgage on a government 
grant of land, which consists of twelve thousand eight hun- 
dred acres for each mile of road through the States of Wis- 
consin and Minnesota, and twenty-five thousand six hundred 



43 MINNESOTA LANDS. 

acres per mile through the Territories of Dakota, Montana, 
Idaho, and Washington. In average fertility of soil, health- 
fulness and mildness of climate, diversity and extent of re- 
sources, the belt of country comprising this grant is such as 
to render the lands very valuable, and insure their speedy 
sale and cultivation. Sold at the average price realized by 
other land-grant roads, the real estate endowment of the 
Northern Pacific Company will produce more than three 
times the issue of bonds per mile. 

The Company is now offering for sale to settlers and colo- 
nies a portion of its valuable land-grant in Minnesota ; and a 
large area on the Pacific coast will soon be placed on the 
market. The offered lands are selling readily ; and hence- 
forward the Company will realize a large yearly income from 
this source. 

The bonds are at all times receivable at ten per cent pre- 
mium (1.10) in payment or exchange for the Company's land 
at market-prices, — a provision which practically gives the 
holder of these mortgage-bonds the power of foreclosure at 
will. 

The proceeds of all sales of land are required to be de- 
voted by the trustees of the bondholders as a Sinking Fund 
to the purchase and cancellation of the first-mortgage bonds, 
or, temporarily, to the payment of interest thereon, if neces- 
sary. This provision will make' the Railroad Company itself 
a large purchaser of its own securities in the open market 
from the time the road is completed until the bonds mature, 
or are all bought in. 

All marketable stocks and bonds will be received (by ex- 
press or otherwise) at current prices in exchange for Northern 
Pacific seven-thirties without expense to the investor. Pam- 
phlets and ful) information will be furnished on application. 

JAY COOKE & CO., 

Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, 

Financial Agents Northern Pacific Railroad Company. 

D3T" For sale by banks and bankers generally. 



Offices 



OF 



Tl|e L(kqd ©epkftrqent 



Northern Pacific Railroad. 



120 Broadway, New York ; St. Paul, Minnesota ; Kalama, 
Washington Territory. 

After Sept. 1, 1872, the New -York office will be at the corner of 

5th Avenue and 9 th Street. 



All inquiries relating to Land or Immigration should be addressed 
to one of the above offices. 



Rand, Avery, & Co., Printers, Boston. 



